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OAS PERMANENT COUNCIL ELECTS COMMITTEE CHAIRS

  July 30, 2003

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today elected, by acclamation, new chairs for its permanent committees and working groups.

Ambassador Juan Manuel Castulovich, Permanent Representative of Panama to the OAS, will chair the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs in the coming year, replacing Antonio García Revilla, Alternate Representative of Peru.

Ambassador Ellsworth John, of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, will chair the Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs. He succeeds Ambassador Peter DeShazo, Alternate Representative of the United States to the OAS.

The Committee on Hemispheric Security will be led by Ambassador Luis Enrique Chase Plate of Paraguay. His predecessor, Ambassador Miguel Ruiz-Cabañas of Mexico, will chair a working group that was established to prepare for the Special Conference on Security, which will be held later this year in Mexico.

Ambassador Rodolfo Gil of Argentina will head the Committee on Inter-American Summits Management and Civil Society Participation in OAS Activities, replacing Ambassador Paul Durand of Canada.

The Working Group to Prepare the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will continue to be led by Ambassador Eduardo Ferrero Costa of Peru.

Reference: E-145/03